a world of café stories

La Caféothèque, Paris

By KENNY MAH and CK LIM

Located next to La Cité Internationale des Arts, an artists residence in the 4th arrondissement, La Caféothèque is considered a pioneer of specialty coffee scene in Paris. Here you may enjoy some of the best brews in the French capital with picturesque views of the Seine.

This café is a labour of love by Gloria Montenegro, a former Ambassador of Guatemala. Lamenting the lack of good coffee in her adopted city, she started her own café and roastery, and ultimately started her own movement.

Today, La Caféothèque offers coffee from over 20 different countries, all of them single estates (no blends) and all roasted in-house by experienced roasters. This is sort of a Parisian coffee mecca where enthusiasts come to attend intensive industry courses while more casual coffee lovers are sipping their brews innocently in the outer salons.

And what rooms! You may consider La Caféothèque as an intimate network of intertwined salons, each with its own unique personality. The slightly dark backroom is a cave – a trunk in one corner filled with children’s toys, a piano in another. Rows of drawers offer samples of green coffee beans from around the globe.

There is a cosy lounge where pages of paperbacks are turned slowly, almost like a private library. The bar is where the action is; baristas finetuning their craft in brewing and pulling shots.

The jungle room is a city-bound sanctuary that recalls the rainforests of her original country. We sit here and enjoy the natural sunlight on a chilly spring morning. The furniture is made from rescued wood, with old paint chipping off artfully. Our coffees arrive accompanied by little pieces of dark chocolate. I bite into my pain au chocolat and it’s delicious, just like this café, this experience.